The Eat Them To Defeat Them campaign, from The Food Foundation's Veg Power, has led to £132m vegetable sales over a four year period, which is the equivalent of 1.4 billion children’s portions.
The 2022 campaign to encourage children to consume more vegetables, directly led to an additional £34.1m in sales of vegetables nationwide.
Running for its fourth consecutive year, the £3.5m 2022 campaign reached 61% of households with children aged four to nine-years-old. Over one million schoolchildren across 3,850 schools took part in Eat Them To Defeat Them activities.
Dan Parker, chief executive of Veg Power, commented, “These latest results are outstanding and demonstrate not only the effectiveness of the campaign but also the strength of the enduring partnerships on which this campaign has been built.
“Veg Power and ITV’s campaign brings together a wide range of organisations including media companies, the advertising industry and grocers together with a huge community of schools and caterers working to support families to raise healthier children.'
The campaign also increased vegetable consumption as 77% of the schools confirmed their children ate more vegetables as a result. An independent study conducted by Loughborough University in partnership with school caterers HC3S also showed up to a 21% reduction in plate waste in schools during the campaign.
Susie Braun, director of social purpose at ITV, added, “The results show the same thing year after year: this initiative succeeds in getting more vegetables into shopping baskets and children’s tummies - as much as 1.4 billion portions. Every parent wants their child to eat more vegetables so that’s 1.4 billion reasons to celebrate.”
The campaign will be returning in February 2023 with ITV, Channel 4 and Sky as key partners and a schools’ programme has also been confirmed.